32 replies to this topic

[Huron Fal]

INTRODUCTION

This thread will explain the difference between unlocking skills for your first mech in a certain weight class versus unlocking skills for subsequent mechs in the same weight class. The thread also indicates when it is "safe" to sell a mech you do not want, and contains other helpful information regarding leveling. It is highly recommended that you read the entire guide, including the NOTES at the bottom in order to avoid any costly mistakes.

UNLOCKING TIERS:

• Unlocking all the 'Basic' skills for 3 different variants of the same chassis type will unlock the 'Elite' skill tree for that chassis type. (I.E If you unlock all the 'Basic' skills for 3 Cataphract Variants then you can start unlocking 'Elite' skills for those variants.)

• Unlocking all 'Elite' skills for 3 mechs in the same weight class will unlock the 'Master' tier for that weight class. (I.E If you unlock all the 'Elite' skills of 2 variants of a Cataphract and 'Elite' skills for 1 Catapult variant for a total of 3 elited heavy chassis, See 'EXAMPLE 2 PART A' for more details.)

EXAMPLE 1 (PART A ):

Assume I have just bought my first mech ever, a Cataphract, which is in the 'Heavy' weight class.

• I have to unlock all the 'Basic' skills for 3 Cataphract variants in order to unlock the 'Elite' tree for those variants.

• I then have to unlock all the 'Elite' skills for the 3 Cataphract variants in order to unlock the 'Master' tree.

(After unlocking all the 'Elite' skills for a variant you do not want, you can sell it. See the 'NOTES' section for further advice on selling mechs.)

• I then decide to unlock 'Master' for one of my three variants.

Remember: Unlocking all the 'Elite' skills for 3 chassis in the 'Heavy' weight class will unlock the 'Master' skill tree for all 'Heavy' weight class mechs. After I have done this I only have to unlock the 'Elite' skills for 1 variant of any new 'Heavy' chassis I buy in the future. (See in PART B below.)

EXAMPLE 1 (PART B ):

Now that I have a mastered a Cataphract, I decide to buy a Catapult, which is also a 'Heavy' chassis.

• I have to unlock all the 'Basic' skills for 3 variants of the Catapult in order to unlock the 'Elite' tree for those variants.

(If you only wish to unlock 'Master' for 1 variant, you can sell any unwanted variants after unlocking all of that variant's 'Basic' skills.)

• This time however, I only have to unlock all of the 'Elite' skills for 1 variant of the Catapult in order to unlock the 'Master' tree for that variant.

• This means I save 43,000 EXP worth of grinding over when I had to unlock the Cataphract skills. I can now unlock 'Master' for the variant I decided to keep.

This Example also applies to any subsequent 'Heavy Chassis' I decide to buy as well, but If I chose to buy a chassis in another weight class I would have to start the same process that I underwent with the Cataphracts in Example 1.

EXAMPLE 2 (PART A ):

This example is a more uncommonly used tactic for those who own many variants of several chassis, but want to reduce the amount of time spent leveling unwanted variants.

For the sake of this example we will assume that I have 3 Cataphract variants, and 3 Catapult variants, but have not leveled any skills in a 'Heavy Chassis" up until now. I want to unlock 'Elite' skills for 2 variants of the Cataphract, and only 1 variant of the Catapult, as opposed to having to unlock 'Elite' skills for 3 variants of the same chassis.

• I start by unlocking all the 'Basic' skills for all 6 mechs. The order in which I do this does not matter.
  
• After unlocking the 'Basic' skills for all 3 Cataphract variants, I can begin unlocking the 'Elite' skills of the 2 Cataphract variants that I like the best.
  
• I unlock all the 'Elite' skills for the 2 Cataphract variants I like, and all the 'Elite' skills for the 1 Catapult variant that I like. The order in which I do this does not matter.
  
• I now have 3 'Heavy Chassis' with all 'Elite' skills unlocked, the 'Master' skill tree is unlocked for both the 2 fully Elited Cataphracts and the 1 fully Elited Catapult.

EXAMPLE 2 (PART B ):

As with Example 1, Part B before, now that I have unlocked the 'Elite' skills for 3 mechs and achieved 'Master Status' for the 'Heavy' weight class, I can level any other type of heavy chassis as follows:

• I have to unlock all the 'Basic' skills for 3 variants in order to unlock the 'Elite' tree for those variants.
  
• I only have to unlock all of the 'Elite' skills for 1 variant in order to unlock the 'Master' tree for that variant.

NOTES:

• When you unlock all the 'Elite' skills for a variant, that variant's 'Basic' skill bonuses are multiplied by 2. (For example, TWIST-X will now allow you to twist your torso 20% instead of the regular 10%.) This doubled bonus is indicated by a bold '2x' next to your 'Basic' skill tree.
  
• Should you decide to sell a mech and repurchase it later, you do not lose any unlocked skills or EXP.
  
• Similarly, all tier requirements from mechs that you have been sold will carry over. (I.E you can sell 2 of your 3 mechs that has 'Basic' unlocked and still be able to unlock 'Elite' on the remaining mech)
  
• However, you will be unable to spend EXP or GXP on skills for a mech that you do not have in your mechbay.
  
• You must have a mech purchased and selectable in a mechbay (I.E do not sell it), if you want to be able to assign any of it's EXP or convert it to GXP.

• Basically, do not sell your mechs unless you are done unlocking skills for them.
  
• Some variants may be made more desirable over time due to patches. If you have spare mechbays, it may be beneficial to keep all your mechs, even if you don't plan on using them right now.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I have seen a lot of people complaining about the need to go through all this trouble to Master a mech. Let me set the record straight. Yes, you have to grind and it is tedious, that is the point. Premium Time and GXP transfers are some of the leading sources of income for our beloved game, and without them we would see even less content than we do now. We have to have a grind somewhere in order to give people an incentive to buy MC. Some people, myself included, choose not to buy MC and are faced with more grinding. However, ALL OF US benefit from the grind in the long run because it helps fund this game. Please, be informed, and refrain from posting about the removal of this system.

CREDITS:

Darkkterror and knnniggett for their input towards revision.

ADDENDUM:

Please feel free to leave any feedback you might have for my guide, as well as any questions you might have over its contents / leveling in general. I am more than happy to assist. Hoped this guide helped you.

Thanks for reading!

Edited by Huron FaI, 23 March 2013 - 02:13 PM.

[Huron Fal]

This might do better in the player help section, I just saw a topic post about this very issue. If a mod sees this feel free to move it if you agree. *cough* might be sticky worthy *cough*

[knight-of-ni]

There is another possibility to consider. Because this game is still beta, things can change. Things can change in a way that might make one regret selling any mech.

Take the Raven for example. I'm sure there were some who mastered the Raven chassis well before ECM was introduced. If that same pilot sold their 3L variant, they might have regretted that decision after ECM was announced to be available only on that variant.

For quite a while, I questioned the value of the Jenner JR7-K variant. When it comes to hardpoints, there isn't anything the other two variants can't do better. But guess what it has that the other two don't? ...an extra module slot. I'm glad I didn't sell it as it might come in handy after the controversial consumables are released.

I'm sure there are other examples that currently exist, and I am sure there will be more examples in the future.

This is one reason why I choose to not ever sell any mech, even after I've unlocked all the skills.
Unfortunately this requires buying additional mech bays. It won't be a solution for the free-to-play user.

EDIT: Spelling and grammar

Edited by knnniggett, 06 March 2013 - 05:47 PM.

[Ferodaktyl]

What do you mean by this : "Also note that after you unlock elite for a variant, that variant gets 2x the bonuses from the basic skill tree!" ? For example, Cool run will be 15% instead of 7%?

[knight-of-ni]

Ferodaktyl, on 07 March 2013 - 04:13 AM, said:

What do you mean by this : "Also note that after you unlock elite for a variant, that variant gets 2x the bonuses from the basic skill tree!" ? For example, Cool run will be 15% instead of 7%?

Yes, it means exactly that... the skills you earned on the basic tree become double their original values. Once you've reached this point, you will see a "x2" to the left of the basic tier skills you've already unlocked.

[Tstyles]

This thread is another one of those golden nuggets of information you can't just search for, VERY good info!

Quick question:

(Apologies, I've only just woken up) I currently have a Cataphract 4X in my mechbay. If it sold it and then bought it later would it still have basic and elite skills still there? Or will I have to grind them back up again?

Thank You

[Ferodaktyl]

Once you unlock a skill, it remains unlocked even if you sell the mech. After rebuying it you continue from where you left. The XP you have remains as it is, but you can not use it unless you have the mech in garage.

[Huron Fal]

Tstyles, on 07 March 2013 - 05:20 AM, said:

This thread is another one of those golden nuggets of information you can't just search for, VERY good info!

Quick question:

(Apologies, I've only just woken up) I currently have a Cataphract 4X in my mechbay. If it sold it and then bought it later would it still have basic and elite skills still there? Or will I have to grind them back up again?

Thank You

Yes, all skills unlocked will be saved as will any extra exp you havnt spent. You cant, however, use that unspent exp or convert it to GXP unless you have the mech currently purchased

Ferodaktyl, on 07 March 2013 - 04:13 AM, said:

What do you mean by this : "Also note that after you unlock elite for a variant, that variant gets 2x the bonuses from the basic skill tree!" ? For example, Cool run will be 15% instead of 7%?

Clarified the "2x Basics" part of my post to make it easier to understand.

knnniggett, on 06 March 2013 - 05:40 PM, said:

There is another possibility to consider. Because this game is still beta, things can change. Things can change in a way that might make one regret selling any mech.

Take the Raven for example. I'm sure there were some who mastered the Raven chassis well before ECM was introduced. If that same pilot sold their 3L variant, they might have regretted that decision after ECM was announced to be available only on that variant.

For quite a while, I questioned the value of the Jenner JR7-K variant. When it comes to hardpoints, there isn't anything the other two variants can't do better. But guess what it has that the other two don't? ...an extra module slot. I'm glad I didn't sell it as it might come in handy after the controversial consumables are released.

I'm sure there are other examples that currently exist, and I am sure there will be more examples in the future.

This is one reason why I choose to not ever sell any mech, even after I've unlocked all the skills.
Unfortunately this requires buying additional mech bays. It won't be a solution for the free-to-play user.

EDIT: Spelling and grammar

I agree with you 100%, however my post was long enough as it is and I did not want to include information that wasn't pertinent to the topic of unlocking skill trees. This is good advice though, assuming you have the mechbays for it. (Edit: Information Included as of 3/8/13)

Edited by Huron FaI, 08 March 2013 - 08:25 AM.

[Kmieciu]

I never sold any mechs, and now I have 26, all of them are fully upgraded. I love to experiment and some times I come up with a new idea for a mech I haven't used in weeks. Every time you sell and then re-buy a mech, you waste 50% of it`s value. And I don't want to waste my time.

[Xiang]

Tstyles, on 07 March 2013 - 05:20 AM, said:

This thread is another one of those golden nuggets of information you can't just search for, VERY good info!

Quick question:

(Apologies, I've only just woken up) I currently have a Cataphract 4X in my mechbay. If it sold it and then bought it later would it still have basic and elite skills still there? Or will I have to grind them back up again?

Thank You

Posted in this thread a few days ago:
http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

Not sure if it adds anything, but maybe someone will find it useful.

Xiang

[Huron Fal]

Xiang, on 08 March 2013 - 01:52 AM, said:

Posted in this thread a few days ago:
http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

Not sure if it adds anything, but maybe someone will find it useful.

Xiang

Yeah my guide sums all that up in easy to understand bullet points. It makes me sad to see players still unsure over this sort of thing. I wish my guide was more well-known :/

[Huron Fal]

Also, thread title edited for more clarity / my OCD. Some poor mod's activity feed is full of my knittpicky editions xD

[Huron Fal]

knnniggett, on 06 March 2013 - 05:40 PM, said:

There is another possibility to consider. Because this game is still beta, things can change. Things can change in a way that might make one regret selling any mech.

Kmieciu, on 08 March 2013 - 01:43 AM, said:

I never sold any mechs, and now I have 26, all of them are fully upgraded. I love to experiment and some times I come up with a new idea for a mech I haven't used in weeks. Every time you sell and then re-buy a mech, you waste 50% of it`s value. And I don't want to waste my time.

Advice regarding keeping mechs included under NOTES

[Endless Waltz]

Whoa this guide is really well written, thanks for the info!

[darkkterror]

I've seen a lot of questions about unlocking skills so it's great to have a guide. There's one small thing, though. Unlocking Master tier requires that you fully Elite 3 Mechs of the same weight class. It does not require that you first Master a specific chassis in that weight class by eliting 3 Mechs of that same chassis.

Going by the examples that you created, this would mean that you could actually stop with Cataphracts once two of them were 4/4 Elite. Then once you got one Catapult to 4/4 Elite you will have unlocked Master tier for the 2 elite 'practs and the 1 elite 'pult.

In my Assault tier, I unlocked Master by getting 2 Atlases to 4/4 Elite and 1 Awesome to 4/4 Elite. These are still the only 3 Assault Mechs that I have purchased all Elite skills on. I have since purchased Master for 1 of those Atlases with the second Atlas and the Awesome being eligible to purchase Master.

[Huron Fal]

darkkterror, on 08 March 2013 - 08:23 PM, said:

I've seen a lot of questions about unlocking skills so it's great to have a guide. There's one small thing, though. Unlocking Master tier requires that you fully Elite 3 Mechs of the same weight class. It does not require that you first Master a specific chassis in that weight class by eliting 3 Mechs of that same chassis.

Going by the examples that you created, this would mean that you could actually stop with Cataphracts once two of them were 4/4 Elite. Then once you got one Catapult to 4/4 Elite you will have unlocked Master tier for the 2 elite 'practs and the 1 elite 'pult.

In my Assault tier, I unlocked Master by getting 2 Atlases to 4/4 Elite and 1 Awesome to 4/4 Elite. These are still the only 3 Assault Mechs that I have purchased all Elite skills on. I have since purchased Master for 1 of those Atlases with the second Atlas and the Awesome being eligible to purchase Master.

I was under the impression that master could only be unlocked for a mech if 3 mechs for that variant were elited. Are you sure you did not elite a third atlas variant and mastered one of the atlases first, thereby enabling the unlocking of master for the Awesome after only eliting one variant?

I am not saying I do not believe you, I have just never heard of this before.

Edited by Huron FaI, 09 March 2013 - 10:35 AM.

[Huron Fal]

This information would require me to re-write a large portion of my guide so I want to be sure before I move forward.

[T0rmented]

I'd just like to add NEVER SELL A MECH, why grind all those c-bills to throw them all away? dont be cheap invest in some mech bay only mc

[Huron Fal]

T0rmented, on 09 March 2013 - 10:57 AM, said:

I'd just like to add NEVER SELL A MECH, why grind all those c-bills to throw them all away? dont be cheap invest in some mech bay only mc

Heh youre the third to say this, I put it under NOTES a few days ago

Can anyone confirm this:

darkkterror, on 08 March 2013 - 08:23 PM, said:

I've seen a lot of questions about unlocking skills so it's great to have a guide. There's one small thing, though. Unlocking Master tier requires that you fully Elite 3 Mechs of the same weight class. It does not require that you first Master a specific chassis in that weight class by eliting 3 Mechs of that same chassis.

Going by the examples that you created, this would mean that you could actually stop with Cataphracts once two of them were 4/4 Elite. Then once you got one Catapult to 4/4 Elite you will have unlocked Master tier for the 2 elite 'practs and the 1 elite 'pult.

In my Assault tier, I unlocked Master by getting 2 Atlases to 4/4 Elite and 1 Awesome to 4/4 Elite. These are still the only 3 Assault Mechs that I have purchased all Elite skills on. I have since purchased Master for 1 of those Atlases with the second Atlas and the Awesome being eligible to purchase Master.

Edited by Huron FaI, 09 March 2013 - 11:24 AM.

[knight-of-ni]

Huron FaI, on 09 March 2013 - 11:24 AM, said:

Can anyone confirm this:

Yes, it actually says it in the mechlab after you unlock the basic tier on a mech.
Notice that the wording changes from "of this chassis" to "of this weight class" after you unlock the basic tier.